Some coast-to-coast tests found just exactly what's lurking on those carts. They're one of the germiest things that you or your children will ever touch. Grocery carts are literally germs on wheels.

"You don't know who's been in the cart and you don't know if they have germs they pass and get you sick," said one consumer.

"Especially during cold and flu season, we'd be at the store and two days later we'd be in the pediatrician's office because somebody had a virus or something," said another consumer.

The next time you take a spin through the grocery aisles, consider this: the average cart could be contaminated with up to one million germs. Those invisible nasty bugs gravitate mainly to the handle and the basket, where many of us put our fresh produce -- and diaper-aged kids.

"They could be vectors really for influenza, staph, mrsa viruses. You see these on common surfaces that people touch a lot," said Dr. Chuck Gerba

Gerba is a leading expert on germs found in public places, earning him the nickname "Dr. Germ."

"it's really amazing to us that you come across more fecal bacteria on a shopping cart than you do in most public restrooms," he said.

In fact, Gerba's studies found that shopping carts rank third behind playgrounds and public transit handrails when it comes to germ exposure.

NBC’s Today wanted to find out just how germy shopping carts really are. It dispatched its own team of germ finders from coast to coast to find out, gathering bacteria off of random carts from California to Maine.

All of the samples were sent to Gerba's lab at the University of Arizona for testing. Three days of scientific study later, there were some alarming results.

“In samples taken by the Today show, we found E.coli on most of the shopping carts. Wherever they're going shopping, I'm not going to go," said Gerba.

All of the samples contained coliform bacteria, which usually indicates the presence of fecal matter. Even more disturbing is that approximately 40 percent to 90 percent of the carts sampled tested positive for E. coli, which can cause severe intestinal infections, bad cramps and diarrhea, especially harmful in young children.

Many stores now provide antibacterial wipes next to the carts. In Phoenix, a Bashas' grocery has taken its war against germs even further. Bashas' installed what looks like a mini-car wash that sprays a non-toxic, germ killing mist over all of the carts.

Several stores in Springfield are already supplying disinfecting wet-wipes for their grocery carts.